August 03, 2008	Sunday	Rajab 30, 1429

GAZA, Aug 2: Three Hamas policemen and a member of a pro-Fatah clan were killed on Saturday in the Gaza Strip, medics said, in internecine violence that could complicate Arab-backed efforts to reconcile the rival Palestinian factions.

The latest violence erupted when Hamas gunmen circled a neighbourhood in Gaza City to arrest members of the Helles clan who the Islamist group believe were behind a series of bombings that killed six people last Friday.

Hamas blamed Fatah for the attacks in which five Hamas gunmen and a girl were killed. Fatah denied any involvement.

Hospital officials said five Hamas officers and at least 40 other people, including members of the Helles clan, affiliated with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction, were wounded in Saturday’s clashes.

The official Palestinian news agency WAFA said Abbas telephoned Ahmed Helles, a senior member of the clan, to express solidarity. Abbas called Hamas’s campaign “unacceptable” and “a blow” to his call for national dialogue.

The recent violence could hamper Egyptian efforts aimed at reconciling Abbas’s Fatah movement with Hamas Islamists. Tension between the rival factions spiked last year when Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip after routing pro-Abbas forces.

Islam Shahwan, a Hamas security spokesman, said one officer was killed by an explosive charge and two others were killed by a rocket propelled grenade during fighting in the Shejaia suburb of Gaza City.

Ehab al-Ghsain, a spokesman for Hamas’s Interior Ministry, said: “The Helles family has become a ... military force and its members have been attacking, abducting and even killing people.

We must put an end to their attacks on innocent citizens.”

“All attempts to convince them to hand suspects over have failed,” he said, adding that dozens had been arrested during the fighting.

Ahmed Helles, who also serves as a top Fatah official in Gaza, vowed to press on with the fighting, and denied his clan was behind the bombings.

—Reuters